HOME

Welcome to the Cougars Grade 8 English Class wiki. This wiki provides you with a place where you can share your ideas about the books you are reading, and the things you are writing about in this team-taught class.

Each section of students in Grade 8 will circulate among the three teachers on the teaching team. Students will work with each teacher for one trimester. Each of us will "specialize" in certain areas of writing/reading. Students will study poetry, memoir and essay writing with Mrs. Minnick; speech writing and drama with Mr. Metcalf; and novels, short fiction, and the essay with Ms. Margosian.

The work of Nancie Atwell, author of //Lessons that Change Writers, Naming the World// and //The Reading Zone,// is the inspiration for this innovative and rigorous writing and reading course. Some days students will engage in Writing Workshop, and other days they will participate in Reading Workshop. Regular study of vocabulary, using //Vocabulary Workshop Level E// by Sadlier-Oxford, and grammar study using //Grammar in Practice: Sentences and Paragraphs, by Lesli J. Favor,// are also essential elements of this course.

What does Writing Workshop look like?

Most days class will begin with a mini-lesson. Students will explore and discuss some small but important aspect of the writing process, including grammar study. After the mini-lesson and discussion, students write. Their teacher will circulate among them as they work, asking questions, giving advice, making suggestions, discussing ideas, and pointing the way out of mind boggles.

What about writing homework?

Students will have either reading or writing homework every night. When they have writing homework, they will write in their writing journal. Sometimes they will be asked simply to list topics for writing. Other times, they will record impressions for further exploration, or they will draft part or all of a piece of writing. In class, students will share their ideas with their peers, and with the class.

What does Reading Workshop look like?

Students will come to class on these days ready to discuss the works they are currently reading. Their teachers will present mini-lessons on genres, authors, and style. Then students will read in class while their teachers circulate among them asking them to discuss their progress, their questions, and any problems they have encountered along the way.

What about reading homework?

Students are asked to select their own reading from books available at school, in their public library, at the book store or from a home. When students have reading homework, they will be asked to read for a minimum of one-half hour per night. When they come to class the following day, they will mark in the class record-book the number of pages they have completed. Their teacher will be speaking with them about what they are reading, why they made their selection, how difficult the reading is for them, and what they would like to read next. In this way, teachers will become involved in helping students make choices.

Come on in and check the wiki out.